Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Professional Hit Squad Used Fake Passports in Mahmoud al-Mabhouh Assassination

The British and Irish governments have said that passports belonging to the alleged killers of a top Hamas official are fake.

Ireland said the names Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron, and their passport numbers, did not match anything issued by its officials.

Britain said it believed six British passports were also fakes.

The suspects were named by police in Dubai where Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered in his hotel on 20 January.

A French man and a German man were also suspected of playing parts in the assassination.

Dubai police said on Monday it would issue arrest warrants for 11 people suspected of the assassination of Mr Mabhouh.

Reports have suggested that Mr Mabhouh was in Dubai to buy weapons for Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Hamas have accused Israeli agents of killing him.

A day after Dubai police announced the names of the suspects, a spokesman for Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs said: "We are unable to identify any of those three individuals as being genuine Irish citizens.

"Ireland has issued no passports in those names."

The passport numbers had the wrong number of digits and did not contain letters as authentic passports do.

[...]

Officials in Dubai said the team appeared to be a professional hit-squad, most likely sponsored by a foreign power, suggesting the team were operating on false documents.